My
Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in
Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and
establish a system of transparency, public participation, and
collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote
efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government
should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and
provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.
Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national
asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law
and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can
readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies
should harness new technologies to put information about their operations
and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive
departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify
information of greatest use to the public."

The memorandum, signed by President
Barak Obama, was published in the Federal Register and expresses a wonderful
sentiment.

Unfortunately, reality transpired
and this happened when the ACLU got curious
about the use of warrantless government snooping on text messages sent by the
sweaty, American voting masses:

This goes on for 15 pages so I
didn't bother to bore you with screen captures of all fifteen identically and completely redacted pages.

As background, the ACLU observed that various FBI and U.S.
Attorneys' Office documents suggested that the government is surveilling our
emails and other electronic communications without the use of a warrant even
though a federal appeals court ruling ruled that such actions were in violation
of the Fourth Amendment which states the following:

"The right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

When the ACLU filed a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Justice about the issue, the
heavily redacted document above was the response that they apparently received.

It's too bad that the lens of recent history will likely miss out on the whole idea that this was a voter problem. The republicans were laughed at because they're religious nuts and the left seized power. It's far to laugh at nuts, but there are nuts on both sides, and they're just as bad. The problem here is the left gained popular power through ridiculing the right, and turned the right into such a mockery that there was no balancing force.

If you're a liberal, I'm not trying to say don't be a liberal. I'm trying to say that while you're laughing at some right-wing nut, do not forget that when you emasculate that party you leave no check or balance against your own wingnuts. You have to realize that there is validity to the conservative side of the political argument and maintain balance. It cuts both ways when the right is in power of course, but today it was the left that ran off in left field and didn't heed the conservative warnings about what Obama's big-government ideas would lead to...

In the suit, the coalition of 19 groups representing about 900,000 people demands that the federal government return and destroy any telephone communications information in its possession. It also wants a jury trial on the allegations contained in the suit.

The plaintiffs fall across the political spectrum, including the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, the Council on American Islamic Relations Foundation, Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and others.

Plaintiff Gene Hoffman, chairman of The Calguns Foundation, which advocates against gun control laws, said members are nervous about calling hotlines to ask if they are inadvertently violating any rules or regulations.

"It's a very serious concern that the sensitive conversation would be something the federal government or state government ... could access and realize what's going on," he said.

Dale Gieringer, who directs the California chapter of NORML, said the group joined the suit because members working to reform marijuana laws also have concerns about privacy.

"Because we are devoted to marijuana reform, many of our members have knowledge of activities that are illegal under federal law," Gieringer said.

The lawsuit states the federal government has "indiscriminately obtained, and stored the telephone communications information of millions of ordinary Americans as part of the Associational Tracking Program."

Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in New York asking the government to stop the phone tracking program. Several other civil libertarian organizations have also filed legal actions, hoping to increase the odds of victory by taking cases to federal judges in different jurisdictions.---Huff Post

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.